COMMEMORATION

We Have Lost Ernur Kalender who Has the Spirit of the Leader / Sultan Pınar

Graduated from the DGSA in 1978, Ernur Kalender, with an id no 10242 to Chamber of Architects’ İstanbul Metropolitan Branch, passed away on February 10, 2017. Having been in various positions including the President of Chamber of Architects, Kalender successfully restored many historical monuments. Sultan Pınar has written his obituary.

MİMARLIK AGENDA

“Any Society in which the Guarantee of the Rights is not Assured, or the Separation of Powers not Determined, Has No Constitution at all”. / Berna Çelik

The author states that each country has an official constitution that shows the structure of the state organization but each state is not a constitutional state, that is, a state with a constitution is different than a constitutional state. In that sense, constitutional amendments of the Constitution in the context of a nationwide state of emergency is alarming.

AGENDA

Demolition of Karaköy Passenger Terminal to Protect / Ebru Omay Polat

Karaköy Yolcu Salonu (Passenger Terminal), an important work of Turkish architecture from the early Republican era, knocked down overnight on February 16, 2017. The sea-facing side of the terminal was razed as part of the controversial Galataport project, the privatisation of the Istanbul Salıpazarı Port Area, a 1.2 km stretch of coastline running from the Karaköy docks to Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University's Fındıklı campus.

3. Airport Project: Aerotropolis Landed on the Northern Forests / Cihan Uzunçarşılı Baysal

Brought by the EIA reports of the Istanbul’s 3rd Airport, the concept of “aerotropolis”, that is cities developed around the airports, reveals the growth aimed by the project. The realization of a project in this scale, which aims to house a city within it, requires serious investments and public lands be given to private companies. Summarizing these projects as “gains are privatized, while losses are socialized”, the author mentions her concerns about the future over the discussion on the destructed northern Forest.

Projects Realized by Policies Neglecting Planning, Are They Good for the Public? / Zerrin Bayrakdar

In our country, politics and policy stand in competition with plan, program and design; each on two different sides of the spectrum. Referring to the steps taken despite transportation policies determined in the development plans, the author refers to the projects already carried out in Istanbul and states that we have already given our preference on “either the city or the car" issue as specified in the European Urban Code.

Structural Steel Buildings and Fire Resistance / Abdurrahman Kılıç

The Plasco building in Iran, which sank after a fire on January 19, 2017, brought back questions about the fire resistance of steel structures. The author argues that the risk can be significantly reduced with the establishment of the necessary passive protection systems and the proper isolation of the materials. He underlines that the measures must be considered from the design stage.

EVENT

Search for the “Spirit of Place” on the İstanbul Land Walls: on the Fridge Exhibition / Figen Kıvılcım Çorakbaş

Instead of looking at the İstanbul Land Walls within the well-studied topic of the siege history of the city, the “On the Fridge, the Istanbul Land Walls” exhibition reveals the multiple meanings of the monument in the city’s urban history and daily life. The author, unfolding the context of the exhibition, refers to different presentation techniques used in the exhibition that was formulated from “multiple perspectives”.

ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION

Obsession with Quantity in Student Quotas and Quality Seeking in Architectural Education / Bülend Tuna

Schools of architecture that were established without sufficient faculty members and inadequate spatial requirements, and the ever-increasing student quotas forecast significant problems. The author puts forth this concern with numbers before 9th Architectural and Educational Congress which will be held in the coming months.

COMMEMORATION: MARUF ÖNAL

Cultivated, Modest, Reliable Modern / İhsan Bilgin

The first article of this section opened in the scope of “Maruf Önal and the Institutionalization of Architecture: Architectural Practice, Unionization, Education” was published by İhsan Bilgin, who is a close witness to Önal’s three characteristics: “Following the Mimar Sinan Grand Prize, he was mentioned for the second time, this time with his legacy, due to his obvious cultured manners as well as his established modern identity far away from bigotry”.

ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM

“Nice, Rich, Pleasant”: Şişhane Park / Deniz Güner

Şişhane Park, awarded in “Building Category” of 2016 National Architecture Awards, due to “its location in the historical environment and meticulous articulation of the topographical characteristics; the way it offers the citizens a park with a view, panoramic terraces and activity fields, where they can spent time and rest; its success in the way it opens itself to the silhouette of the Golden Horn and in bringing out a novel approach to the parking space with its geometry and structural qualities; providing comfort inside the congested traffic through allowing access to different transportation vehicles and pedestrian routes and performing a high level competence as a public space, examples of which are rare in our country; and its being an exemplar project for displaying well-established relations between private sector-local government.” The author emphasizes the fact that architects should have similar concerns as in the case of Şişhane Park and should find creative solutions to continue “gathering” culture by asking innovative questions about the city in any project.

COMPETITIONS

İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Transportation Integration Center and Its Surroundings National Architectural Project Competition     

To create a new service building for the Transportation Integration Center on Municipality’s 17.532 m² site in Halkapınar, the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality organized an architectural competition that has been recently finalized. At the nodal point of the İzmir city transportation and within the "new city center borders," the project site is situated at the intersection point of Izban, Izmir Metro and Tramway lines, the High Speed ​​Train line planned to be built, and also directly connected to the İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport via Izban. In this free, national and single-staged competition, 3 awards and 5 honorable mentions were distributed among 26 evaluated projects.

DIGITAL DESIGN

The Relationship between Architect and Construction Engineer in the Context of Architecture, Structure, and Design: Sendai Mediatheque as a Case Study / Tomris Akın

Possible impacts of digital design tools on the relation between architecture and tectonics and how such an effect may transform spaces created through these tools, and how these unknowns may shape the future of the architect-engineer relationship are all valid questions for today. The author is looking for answers through the Sendai Mediatheque building by focusing on the rare relationship between the architect Toyo Ito and the construction engineer Mutsuro Sasaki, who work together for a long time.

URBAN DESIGN

Dynamics of Urban Transformation in the 19th Century: İzmir and Thessaloniki (1840-1910) / Ceylan İrem Gençer

By analyzing the cases of Izmir and Selanik, the author examines urban planning reforms initiated by the Ottoman Empire among many others in various other fields. She draws particular attention onto the contrasting duality between the re-planned dock areas and untransformed leftover spaces found in both cities.

CULTURAL INDUSTRY

Designing a New Reconciliation Area with Society: the Dialogue between Art and Architecture in Turkey / Ezgi Yavuz

Evaluating the coexistence of architecture and art within the notion of “publicness”, the author states that using local references in the language expressed in the works of art, and thus creating a feeling of belonging by pointing to a common link to the past, enables architecture to play a determinant and mediating role in the ideal target of building relationships with society.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

The formal language of Louis I. Kahn's Buildings / Emine Köseoğlu

Formal analyses of the space shaped in reference to numerous variables help one to notice the common themes in different projects. Studying the buildings of Louis I. Kahn shaped by the combination of light, material, and tectonics, the author examines two-dimensional plans and seeks a common language through different structures.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD

Modern Housing meets the Middle Class: A Case from Eskişehir in 1950s / Gülşen Akın Güler, Rana Karasözen

The authors analyze three different settlements built in the 1950s, where workers and civil servants resided in Eskişehir, a city growing rapidly along with the developing industrialization. The study reveals information about a certain turn by identifying these houses as an intermediate solution in the process of transition from traditional to modern and also, from rural to urban.

CONTACT

A Dynamic Design Transforming Urban Experience: Railo / Mehmet Kerem Özel

The Rovaniemi Sports Arena Railo was launched in 2015. Designed by APRT (Artto Palo Rossi Tikka) architectural office in Rovaniemi on the north pole line, one of Finland’s cities renowned with Alvar Aalto, this large-scale public structure is thin, light and permeable, open to the outside and open to the city, rather like a tulle - rather than an introverted, protected, massive structure built in this city that is covered with snow most of the time of the year, and has cold and severe weather conditions. The project is one of the wicked children of a country whose social culture, architecture and life is based on harmony, calmness and serenity in general.